Conduit of the Lower Planes (3.5e Class)

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Conduit of the Lower Planes

"My powers are more than enough to deal with the likes of you!"

A fiend is more than an individual; he is a representative of a particular brand of evil, and that role carries power with it. To become a Conduit of the Lower Planes is to embrace that role and become a living pathway by which the energies of the Lower Planes can be made manifest. Raw magical power is the result of this process, and a fiend that walks this route refines his mastery of his innate mystical arts to a terrible degree.

Making a Conduit of the Lower Planes

Races: The Conduit of the Lower Planes is only available to creatures with a plane of origin in the Lower Planes. Creatures from the prime material plane whose ancestors were from a Lower Plane may take this class.

Alignment: A character must be non-good to take any levels in Conduit of the Lower Planes. Nothing happens to a Conduit of the Lower Planes if he becomes Good, save that he must look elsewhere for class advancing.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Conduits of the Lower Planes are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as the whip, the scourge, and the dire flail. True Fiends are proficient with light armor but not with shields of any kind.

Sphere: The Conduit of the Lower Planes gains basic access to a Sphere at every odd numbered level. If the Conduit of the Lower Planes selects a sphere that he already has basic access to, he upgrades it to advanced access. If he already had advanced access, he gains expert access.

Petitioner Immunities: A Conduit of the Lower Planes gains his power from a specific lower plane, and is protected by the nature of that plane:

Pandemonium: Sonic Immunity

The Abyss: Immunity to Electricity

Carceri: Immunity to Cold

Hades: Immunity to Fear and Morale Effects.

Gehenna: Immunity to Acid

Baator: Immunity to Fire

Acheron: Immunity to [Compulsion] effects.

Enhanced Sphere Access: At 2nd level, the Conduit of the Lower Planes gains extra uses of the spell-like abilities that he gains from his Spheres. The Conduit of the Lower Planes gains a number of extra uses of any spell-like ability equal to half the number his character level exceeds the minimum character level to use the spell-like ability (rounded up). So if the Conduit of the Lower Planes has a character level of 4, he would gain 1 extra use of a spell-like ability that is granted by one of his spheres at character level 3 and 2 extra uses of any spell-like from one of his spheres with a minimum level of 1. Upon gaining this ability, the Conduit of the Lower Planes immediately gains a number of extra feats that must all have the [Fiend] tag equal to the number of spheres he has expert access to. If he ever gains expert access to another sphere, he also gains an extra [Fiend] feat.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level, the Conduit of the Lower Planes gains a bonus feat. This feat may be any [Fiend], [Monstrous], or [Item Creation] feat, and the Conduit of the Lower Planes must meet the prerequisites. He gains another such feat at level 8.

Petitioner Skills: A Conduit of the Lower Planes gains his power from a specific lower plane, and at 6th level gains abilities from the nature of that plane (this must be the same plane as was chosen at 1st level):

Pandemonium: +10 to Listen checks.

The Abyss: +10 bonus to Survival checks.

Carceri: +10 bonus to Bluff checks.

Hades: +10 bonus to Hide checks.

Gehenna: +10 bonus to Climb checks, if he doesn't already have a climb speed, he gains one equal to half his normal ground speed (bonuses to Climb from having a Climb speed gained in this way would be included in the +10 bonus)

Baator: +10 bonus to Disguise checks.

Acheron: +10 bonus to Intimidate checks.

Magical Training: At 10th level, the Conduit of the Lower Planes is able to cast magic in a more traditional fashion. He has the spells known and spells per day of a 6th level Sorcerer. The Conduit of the Lower Planes has a caster level of 10, and can take classes that improve spellcasting in order to gain additional spellcasting ability.

Epic <-class name->

Table: The Epic <-class name->

Hit Die: d<-Die size for Hit Die->

Level

Special

21st

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

22nd

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

23rd

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

24th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

25th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

26th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

27th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

28th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

29th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

30th

<-any improvements to class features gained at this level, including any bonus feats->

Campaign Information

Playing a Conduit

Religion: Much as the Fiendish Brutes don't worry about religion, neither do Conduits.

Other Classes: Paladins and goodly clerics do *not* like Conduits of the Lower Planes? Why? They're a walking pipeline to the magic of the Lower Planes! Aside from that, they could get along well with casters in general, because of their common interest in magic.

Combat: Conduits throw around spell-like abilities, but they have 3/4 BAB, so they can mix it up in melee a little bit; they are more certain to hit with a Touch Attack than the usual Wizard of Sorceror.

Advancement: The other two Fiendish classes, Fiendish Brute and True Fiend would help increase the physical abilities of the Conduit. As a side note, if a Conduit specializes in the Fire and Pyre spheres, he can't go wrong with taking Fire Mage. Also, the Conduit can pick up some extra spellcasting as sorceror.

Conduits in the World

“

Your blood will freeze until you die, and then your body will stand up and obey my will

”

—Hakor, Human Conduit of the Lower Planes

Conduits of the Lower Planes are walking lines to infernal magic. Despite that, what they do with that magic is up to them.

Daily Life: Conduits don't have to have a set routine, unlike wizards and clerics and druids. So it's pretty much a crap shoot.

Notables: None I can think of.

Organizations: Conduits aren't any more inclined to band together than other classes, but should a group of them cooperate, they could unleash frightening amounts of magic--waves of fire, sheets of ice, hordes of frighteneing apparitions.

NPC Reactions: Conduits do not look particularly fiendish (unless they've taken fiend feats), so they get along with commoners fairly well. Still, good religious people do not like them, the prejudiced so-and-so's. Casters are likely to express interest in the abilities shown by the conduits.

Conduit Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Planes) can research Conduits to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

The Conduits to the lower planes have powerful natural magic and some of the traits of their linked plane.

15

Beware. Just because a Conduit uses a power doesn't mean he can't do it to you again. And again. And again.

20

The natural affinity for elements means a Fiendish magic user is greatly in tune with some of the universe's energies, and able to use them more effectively than even a strong wizard in some cases.

Conduits in the Game

Conduits bring spell-like abilities and weird bonuses to a party. They can also score some free item creation feats to get equipment cheaper. Or they could use the feats to go fiendish, with claws and slime trails and swirling clouds of fire.

Adaptation: You could easily make this a kind of Sorceror class tailored to whatever theme you want--Good, Evil, Law, Chaos. You just have to come up with new Spheres and new bonuses to get.

Sample Encounter: Hakor the Bonechiller

EL 9: Hakor is depopulating towns with his spell-like abilities to make a zombie army. Stop him on the Kyserian Plains!

Hakor is an overly ambitious Conduit who wants to make an empire of undead, with him ruling the top. He's a big man--over six feet--and his hair and clothing is covered in frost; you can't even tell his hair is black. He also has unnaturally bright blue eyes--but they're different shades of blue. His Elemental Aura ensure he's surrounded by a constant swirl of ice crystals (unless he has a reason to turn it off).

He has quite a lot of low-HD zombies from depopulating villages. He also made his own weapon. To get to him, you'd have to hack your way through a lot of low-level zombies. But melee is tricky, because he does 4d6 cold damage to those within a ten-foot radius (every round at the start of his turn).

He has the Bone, Cold, and Terror Spheres from the Tome of fiends, giving him the ability to turn anyone killed by his spell-likes into a zombie. He also has the [Cold] subtype and can make an intimidate check once a round as a free action. He took Cold and Terror twice, giving them to him 3/day--and then his second level of Conduit lets him use his lower-level spell-likes more often (See Below)

Hakor is meant to be a quickie little adventure--very simple.

Here's his Spheres and the number of times a day he can use them.

Bone

Special: Any creature of 10 HD or less killed by one of your spell-like abilities rises as a zombie under your control, with no control limits.